My neighbour living opposite my house had a party last night with their extended family. They loved karaoke singing and it is loud. The hokkien songs bring me a sense of nostalgia. I grew up near a hawker center and the hawkers loved to play current pop hokkien songs in their potable cassette players turning the volume up high. Growing up in a dialect environment, my language is terribly weak. My Chinese is horrible and English is barely passable.
When I first lived in Canada, I am proud of my English and thought it was good since I can understand the Canadian English. I was deluded and deceiving myself. My understanding of Canadian English was not precise. Worse, my colleagues had a hard time understanding me with my Singlish accent and choice of words. I was lucky my boss decided I have potential in the company and engaged a speech therapist to work on my pronunciation and reduce my accent. I was humbled and learn English all over again. Today, I continues to work on my vocabulary and grammar. I have come a long way and still have a long way to go. Continuous learning is the key to improving my English, written and spoken.
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